IN a double-murder believed to be linked to the criminal underworld, two men were yesterday found dead from multiple gun wounds in a car outside Le Meridian hotel in Limassol.
Shortly after midday, a Le Meridian hotel guard found Kleon Papadopoulos, 34, from Limassol and Christos Leventopoulos, 24, from Dromolaxia slumped in a car with the engine running inside the hotel’s carpark, their heads riddled with multiple bullet wounds.
Limassol police told the Cyprus Mail that the culprit or culprits probably emerged from the nearby trees and bushes while the two men were waiting for the bar at the carpark entrance to ascend so they could exit.
The assailant approached the car from the passenger’s side and from a close distance unloaded 24 9mm rounds through the tinted car window. Most of the bullets that struck the victims were in the head and shoulders.
Along with speculation that the culprit used a silencer, there was also construction underway in the vicinity and music blaring from the hotel poolside, which may explain why no one heard the gunshots at such a busy time.
Leventopoulos was in the driver’s seat, while Papadopoulos was in the passenger seat.
The hotel guard first noted a problem through the TV screen monitoring the carpark. He then called police, who descended upon the scene and cordoned off the area. An ambulance from Limassol General Hospital also rushed to the crime scene, where a medic determined neither man had a pulse.
According to state television, a tall sturdy man in jeans and a hat was seen running away from the crime scene towards the sea.
Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous was also on site as was police chief Charalambos Koulentis, who said that the culprits were waiting for their victims in the hotel entrance.
“At the time that they [the victims] neared the car entrance of the hotel, which was closed [the bar was down] it appears that some individual who was lying in ambush there fired at them,” Koulentis said.
The father and wife of Papadopoulos, as well as relatives of Leventopoulos, later arrived at the crime scene.
It is believed that the main target of the attack was Papadopoulos. There had been a prior attempt on his life last year. One evening in January 2005 two hooded gunmen shot and injured Papadopoulos along with his father, Phytos Papadapoulos, outside their coffee shop.
The two culprits had at the time been lying in wait in a hedged area near the coffee shop. They fired on the father and son as they stepped out of their car, injuring them in the legs and lower back, and then fled on a motorcycle.
Investigators suspect that these murders are part of a two-year vendetta between various underworld groups.
Kleon Papadopoulos was arrested last October as a suspect for the murder of 37-year-old Polis Potamitis, which took place a few days earlier, as well as for the July murder of 30-year-old army contract officer Panicos Prodromou. He was held for several days and then released without charge.
